Most of us believe the first and foremost marketing advantage is maintaining our own Web site.

Sunday, December 26, 2010 Authors Sharing with Authors: Basic Marketing Tips for Newbies

Carolyn Howard-Johnson says, December is a great time to host guest bloggers. I encourage other bloggers to host guests often. Everyone benefits. The guest gets exposure. The blogger gets a bit of a rest. The two of them get to network and possibly to work on future promotions or to collaborate in other ways. This one comes to you from nonfiction writer and poet (with my thanks!) Joyce White.
~~~
Basic Marketing Tips for Newbiesby Joyce White
Congratulations, you’ve published your book. You will soon realize the buck stops with you when it comes to promoting it unless you have plenty of bucks to pour out to publicists and/or your publisher. To make a difference, money must be spent. We are living in wicked hard times that require wicked smart solutions. Whatever we do, we must learn to have a sense of humor and not take ourselves too seriously. I’m not one who travels around with jokes in my head, but I think you will appreciate the following, “How many publishers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three. One to screw it in. Two to hold down the author.” Yes, we authors can be a little stubborn and strong willed. To be successful, we must have relentless persistence in our belief of ourselves and our work, to convince others to spend their hard-earned cash on our books. Most believe authors run on instinct not marketing figures like publishers. John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market your Books says, “The best single advertisement for a book, other than giving away lots of review copies, is the author. An author is a walking-talking advertisement for his book…"The author is his best sales person even though the best solutions emerge through trial and error for all of us. Like Carolyn Howard-Johnson, our Frugal Editor and Promoter says, “Sometimes we have to do what the publisher won’t.” We must remember whatever we do to market our books; nothing significant can be accomplished by acting alone. Most of us believe the first and foremost marketing advantage is maintaining our own Web site. This is a must in today’s high-tech world. I personally think Albert Einstein had the right idea many years ago when he said, “Strive not to be a success but rather be of value.” You might have a great website but do enough people know about it and is it of value to others? Another first is sending out an attractive and informative media (or press) release. This gives you more online visibility, better positions in search engine rankings, and more traffic to your website. If you haven’t done this yet, I suggest you check out Promotion a la Carte at http://promotionalacarte.com/ where where Aggie Villanueva and Nanci Arvizu spend their time promoting authors. Besides creating this great Calendar of Events for me at http://www.promotionalacarte.com/clients-pages/joyce-white-schedule-of-appearances/ , they sent out two releases and created a wonderful book trailer with my poetry book for Christmas marketing. With Promotion a la Carte, you only pay for the services you need or can afford in the moment. They also set up for me book reviews with reviewers that love their work, as well as interviews with Blog Talk Radio hosts. They scheduled had podcasts for me that brought over 300 visitors to my Web site http://www.sculptingtheheart.com/. American Author is a site that focuses on publishers and authors. They help us create our own places and they are my favorite at http://www.americanauthor.com/index.php?page_id=258 Most web services have only five to eight pages whereas they allow over 100 pages. Mine is not just a selling web. It is all about Art Therapy, healing, recovery, entertainment, and other information. They charge no more than others but give so many more opportunities to engage our readers’ interest and promote ourselves and our work.To read more: Go to http://www.SharingwithWriters.Blogspot.com/
.